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"The Skinny" By Eric Hornick Game 30 Isles 3, Washington 1 Andrew Ladd and John Tavares scored goals in the first 1:34 of the 2nd ...

Friday, November 24, 2017

The Skinny: Isles 5, Philadelphia 4 (OT)

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 22

Isles 5, Philadelphia 4 (OT)

Nick Leddy scored his 2nd career overtime goal (first as an Isle) as the Islanders completed a sweep of a home-and home series and defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 before a crowd of 19,643 at Wells Fargo Center.

Jordan Eberle and Andrew Ladd both scored third period goals as the Isles rallied from a multi-goal deficit after 40 minutes to win a road game for the first time since March 9, 2015 (0-22-1).

The Flyers had scored four second period goals to take a 4-2 lead; it's the first time since a 5-4 win in Dallas on December 3, 2011 that the Isles earned a point in a game that they allowed four goals in a period (0-20-0).

The Isles scored the first goal for the 8th time in 22 games (8-0-0) …The four Flyer goals in the 2nd period were the most allowed by the Isles in any period this season… The Isles scored a power play goal for the fifth straight game for the first time since February 2016 (6 games) …Josh Bailey leads the team in assists and points (5-22-27) while John Tavares continues to lead in goals and is one point behind Bailey (15-11-26) … Mathew Barzal's goal extended his point streak to five games and tied him with Vancouver's Brock Boeser for the NHL rookie point lead…An Islander defenseman had earned a point on 8 straight goals before Andrew Ladd's tally… Mathew Barzal extended his point streak to five games (3-5-8) while John Tavares extended his streak to four games (2-5-7)…The Isles improved to 3-3-2 in one-goal games; they are 10-4 in games decided by 2+ goals…The Isles last scored overtime goals in consecutive games on December 22/26, 2007…The Isles are lost their last five Black Friday games (0-4-1), scoring a combined total of six goals…Claude Giroux had 3 points in the second period, giving him 601 career points, including 46 (16-30-46) in 43 games against the Isles.

The Penalty Shot

Flyer rookie Nolan Patrick failed on a first period penalty shot. It was the first penalty shot in an Islander game this season. Thomas Greiss has faced the last five Islander penalty shots, stopping four of them.

It was the first Flyer penalty shot against the Islanders since November 18, 1984, when Kelly Hrudey stopped Ron Sutter. Rick MacLeish scored against Billy Smith in 1978 in the only other regular season Flyer penalty shot against the Isles.

As a team, the Isles have stopped 11 of the last 12 penalty shots that they have faced.

First Things First

The Isles have scored first eight times this season (8-0-0). It's the first time that the Isles have won eight straight games (single season) that they scored first since March 24-April 16,2013 (also 8-0-0).

The Isles also won the last 5 games that they scored first last season, giving them 13 straight wins when the Isles score first. This is one game shy of the club record – the Isles won 14 straight games when scoring first between January 4 – February 25, 1982, including in 12 games of their 15 game winning streak.

A Favorable Comparison

The Isles are 13-7-2 this season; they were 8-10-4 through 22 games last season and won only 13 of their first 33 games last season (13-14-6).

Catching Jonsson

Josh Bailey's assist was his 333rd point, tying Tomas Jonsson for 18th place on the all-time Isles list.

Chasing Patty

John Tavares' assist on the overtime goal give him 563 points, leaving him just three points behind Pat LaFontaine for 6th place on the all-time Isles list.

Leddy(ing) the Way

Nick Leddy's winning goal was his 142nd point as an Islander, breaking a tie with Dave Lewis for 10th place on the all-time Islander defensemen scoring list. Leddy also has 110 Islander assists, tied with Roman Hamrlik for 10th place on the all-time defense Iist.

With 19 points in 22 games this season, Leddy is averaging .86 points/game. The last Islander defensemen to have that high of an average was Marc Andre-Bergeron (21 points/ 23 games =.91 in 2006-07). No Islander defenseman has had an average as high as Leddy over a full season since Jeff Norton (53 points/ 60 games =.88) in 1989-90.

Greiss, Greiss, Baby

Thomas Greiss is 8-2-2 on the season (8-1-2 in his last 11 games). Greiss has won five straight and is 6-0-1 in his last 7 games.

Fastest to 35

Doug Weight is now 37-19-6 as an NHL coach. On November 18 in Tampa Bay, he reached 35 wins faster than any coach in Islander history:

Fewest Games to 35 Wins by an Islander Coach:

59 – Doug Weight

71 – Peter Laviolette 2001-02 (35-25-7-4)

73 – Ted Nolan 2006-07 (35-27-11)

76—Steve Stirling 2003-04 (35-27-10-4)

The Shots

Isles 7-11-16-3=37

Philadelphia 10-7-12-1=30

The Isles are 4-2-2 when they outshoot their opponents, 0-1-0 when the shots are even, and 9-4-0 when they are outshot.

Offside Challenges

The Isles have challenged twice and been successful once.

10/10 vs STL Blues – unsuccessful; Isles killed ensuing power play.

10/12 @ Ana Ducks -- successful

The opponents have not challenged an Islander goal due to an offside so far this season.

Busy Stretch

This was the fifth game of a stretch in which the Isles will play 6 games in 10 days, changing cities between each game and playing two sets of three games in four days, with the four road games being played in two sets of back-to-backs. The Isles are 4-1-0 in this stretch.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 13-7-2 overall; 7-0-2 at home and 6-7-0 on the road.

Philadelphia is 8-9-6 overall; 4-4-4 at home and 4-5-2 on the road.

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 4-3-0 in Division games and 9-4-2 in games versus other divisions. The Isles are 6-3-0 against the East and 7-4-2 against the West.

Our House

The Isles are 7-0-2 at home, matching their best-ever record through 9 home games (7-0-2 in 1978-79 and 8-1-0 in 1984-85).

The Isles are 4-0-2 vs. the Western Conference at Barclays Center this season and are 25-4-5 all-time at Barclays against the West.

Most Points Through 9 Home Games:

16- 2017-18

16- 1978-79

16- 1984-85

In the Nets

Thomas Greiss made 26 saves as he improves to 8-2-2 on the season and 5-2-2 in his career against Philadelphia.

Brian Elliott also made 32 saves; he is 6-5-5 on the season and 5-1-6 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays

The Isles were 1-3 on the power play; Philadelphia was 0-1.

The Isles are 9-2-0 when they score at least one power play goal and 4-5-2 when they do not. The Isles are 7-4-0 when they allow at least one power play goal and 6-3-2 when they do not.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 13-2-0 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 0-5-2 when they do not.

One Goal Games

The Isles are 3-3-2 in games decided by a single goal including 0-3 in regulation. They are 2-1 in games decided in overtime and are 1-1 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-0 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game.

First Goal

The Isles are 8-0-0 when they score first and are 5-7-2 when they allow the opening goal.

Back-to-Backs

Including today, the Isles are 3-2-0 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 2-2-0 on the back-end. This back-to-back set concludes Saturday in Ottawa. The next back-to-back set is December 5th in Florida and December 6th in Tampa Bay.

Tired vs. Rested

•The Isles are 0-2-0 when both teams played the night before.

•The Isles are 4-0-0 when they are rested, and their opponents are not.

•The Isles are 2-0-0 when their opponents are rested, and the Isles are not.

The Isles lead the season series two games to none (and four points to two). The teams will meet again on January 4th in Philadelphia and April 3rd in Brooklyn.

This was the 20th home-and-home series between the team, and only the third to end in an Islander sweep. The last time the Isles swept a home-and-home series from Philadelphia was on January 7 – 9, 1982; the 15-game win streak began two weeks later.

The Isles have won 4 of their last 7 games in Philadelphia (3 in OT/SO). Overall, the Isles are 3-1-2 in their last six games against the Flyers and 9-5-2 in the last 16.

On the Farm

Bridgeport got goals from seven different players and improved to 10-7-0-0 on the season with a 7-3 win on Friday against Hartford; the Sound Tigers are 7-2-0-0 in their last nine games.

Tanner Fritz continues to lead Bridgeport with 16 points (3-13-16); Scott Eansor scored his team-leading eighth goal. Christopher Gibson made 18 saves to improve to 6-1-0 in his last seven games.

This was the first game of a "3-in-3" weekend; road games in Lehigh Valley and Hershey on Saturday and Sunday complete the weekend.

The Isles head to the Canadian capital to take on the Ottawa Senators. It's the first of two meetings this week with the Sens as the teams will also play on Friday in Brooklyn.

Last season Ottawa won the first two meetings between the teams before the Isles won 4-2 in the regular season finale. Jason Chimera scored an empty netter to reach 20 goals on the season.

The Isles are 6-3-1 in their last 10 visits to Ottawa, including a 3-1 record in overtime/shootouts.

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources. Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter & on his blog www.nyiskinny.com.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick